The Kids’ Choice Fails to Deliver Despite Good Ratings

Call it a win that actually isn’t.

For ‘The Kids’ Choice’, it is true that they are winning in the ratings. But in hindsight, it is more of a moral defeat than an actual victory because the numbers tell more of a losing battle.

While Kantar figures suggest that last Sunday’s finale of ‘The Kids’ Choice’ was a success, in reality it is not. Its 26.8% rating was a major drop-off from the second season finale of ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ which hit 45.6%.

"The Kids' Choice" grand finals topped weekend programming as it recorded 24.8% last Saturday (Nov 3) and 26.8% last Sunday (Nov 4). #KantarMedia pic.twitter.com/mkN1XMS3Rr

— ABS-CBN PR (@ABSCBNpr) November 5, 2018

In terms of overall performance from start to finish, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ failed to deliver as well. None of its episodes cracked the 30% barrier, with its highest-rated episode being the first which received 29%.

Again, this was a huge step back from ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ which routinely hit the 30% mark or higher in its run. To make matters worse, GMA took advantage of ‘The Kids’ Choice”s ineptitude, as ‘The Clash’ came to within 1% of the latter in its finale last month.

With such a pitiful performance in spite of the show’s good ratings, it is no secret why ABS-CBN pulled the plug on ‘The Kids’ Choice’ after only 20 episodes. The concept may be original, but in the eyes of the viewers, the Just Kids League is simply too raw and too young to process some serious critical thinking.

Not even the shift from ordinary kids to celebrities last month made the difference. Overall, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ had potential written all over, but the execution left a lot to be desired.

To ABS-CBN’s credit, however, they at least gave it a try. A round of applause should dim all the pain.

Still, much like the ill-fated GMA talent show ‘Anak Ko Yan’ a few years ago, only a few will reminisce about ‘The Kids’ Choice’. This is one forgettable show that ABS-CBN would like to get rid of, and for good reason: it simply did not resonate with the masses.

The Kids’ Choice Turns to Celebrities to Hike Ratings

ABS-CBN’s overdependence on celebrities in its talent and game shows is once again rearing its ugly head.

This time, the victim is ‘The Kids’ Choice’, whose last few episodes were celebrity editions. Since September 29, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ featured either Kapamilya child celebrities or sons/daughters of Kapamilya celebrities, a drastic departure from past episodes involving ordinary kids.

While ‘The Kids’ Choice’ is currently performing well in the ratings, it seems like ABS-CBN is in no mood to celebrate. After all, the program’s 27% average is less than that of its predecessor ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ which regularly peaked in the 30s.

To make matters worse, ‘The Kids’ Choice’ was nearly beaten by the finale of ‘The Clash’ during the weekend of September 29 as the latter came within 1% of the former’s ratings. Overall, since its premiere on September 2, the gap between ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and its competitor was only around 5%.

It was clear that the dominance of past ABS-CBN talent shows was nowhere to be found on ‘The Kids’ Choice’. While it was an original creation, a rarity for ABS-CBN these days, viewers were unimpressed with how the show is being conducted.

Considering that the judges are just 10-year-old elementary school celebrity children with raw trains of thought, the criticisms are undeniable. Exposing them to unfamiliar territory as superiors was just too much to ask for.

Somewhere in Timog Avenue, the folks from GMA Network are celebrating this near-victory. And it will not be a surprise to see either ‘Daddy’s Gurl’ or ‘Studio 7’ overtake ‘The Kids’ Choice’, unless something drastic happens.

That said, the shift from ordinary children to celebrities was a clear desperate move on ABS-CBN’s part to improve the ratings of ‘The Kids’ Choice’ and restore its dominance in that timeslot. The show may be intriguing and unique to begin with, but at the end of the day, the network only cares about the bottom line.

Before Ang Probinsyano: A Look Back at Nathaniel

It had been over three years since a teleserye not named ‘Ang Probinsyano’ aired after ‘TV Patrol’.

So many dramas have aired on ABS-CBN’s Primetime Bida during that span, including a combined seven teleseryes that starred the Big Three love teams in KathNiel, LizQuen and JaDine. But at the end of the day, there was still one constant, and that was the Coco Martin-starred action series ‘Ang Probinsyano’.

After all, the series will turn three on the final week of September and will be closing in on 800 episodes by October. But lost amid the hoopla and the longevity of ‘Ang Probinsyano’ was its long-forgotten predecessor ‘Nathaniel’, the last series to air on ABS-CBN’s 7:50 p.m. slot before Coco Martin and his entourage took over.

‘Nathaniel’ starred Marco Masa in the title role, and his parents were played by Gerald Anderson and Shaina Magdayao. The supporting cast of ‘Nathaniel’ also included Isabelle Daza in her debut project with ABS-CBN.

The series ran from April 20 to September 25, 2015 and aired a total of 115 episodes. Not only that, ‘Nathaniel’ dominated the ratings game as it won past ‘Pari Ko’y’ and the 2015 remake of ‘MariMar’ in its timeslot.

So where are the series’ stars now? ‘Nathaniel”s lead protagonist Marco Masa has not had a major project since then but he did host ‘Team Yey’ for a short time and recently appeared on the second season of ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’.

Shaina Magdayao is currently part of the Kapamilya afternoon series ‘Asintado’. And as for Gerald Anderson, he was recently seen on ‘Ikaw Lang ang Iibigin’ with former on-screen partner Kim Chiu and is now playing semi-pro basketball with the MPBL’s Marikina Shoemakers.

With ‘Ang Probinsyano’ reaching high episode levels not seen since the original ‘Mara Clara’ in the 1990s, it is easy to forget that it succeeded one of ABS-CBN’s most popular family-oriented dramas. That said, revisiting a gem like ‘Nathaniel’ will help viewers look back at a time when child stars used to rock Primetime Bida’s leadoff slot.

All episodes of ‘Nathaniel’ are currently available on iWant TV.

GMA’s The Clash Endures Poor Reviews and Bad Ratings After Two Weeks

Welp!

Four episodes in and ‘The Clash’ does not look too enticing to say the least. The GMA singing competition show is off to a poor start, both critically and commercially.

During the weekend of July 7, ‘The Clash”s ratings were at 19.4 and 19.6% on Saturday and Sunday respectively. On the other hand, ABS-CBN’s ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ season 2 ended with 32.2 and 34.1%.

But it is not just the underwhelming ratings that hurt ‘The Clash’. From the moment it aired viewers complained about the bad lighting, shaky camera angles, awful sound quality and fake audience reactions.

Much of the blame was pointed to director Louie Ignacio. Despite the fact that he is one of the most in-demand directors in television, people can’t help but think why this man had to be at the helm of ‘The Clash’ when in fact he had been the culprit for the downfall of ‘Party Pilipinas’ several years ago.

And while GMA claimed that ‘The Clash”s pilot episode topped Twitter’s trending topics, the overwhelmingly negative reception to the program muted this achievement. But things only got worse for ‘The Clash’.

GMA's newest talent competition 'The Clash' took the first spot on Twitter yesterday, July 7. https://t.co/U94oDvaaVS

— GMA Network (@gmanetwork) July 9, 2018

The second weekend of ‘The Clash’ last July 14-15 saw the program dip to 17.3% and 17.6% in the ratings. Meanwhile, ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ remained consistent, posting figures of 33.4 and 32.4%.

There were still some negative reactions from netizens but the impact was less considerable from the first weekend. As a result, ‘The Clash’ became a non-factor on Twitter whereas ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ got a boost thanks to Marco Masa’s winning portrayal of Enrique Gil.

The good news for ‘The Clash’ is that the competition still has a long way to go. Judging them as a flop after only four episodes may be a tad premature.

But how much longer can the viewers tolerate a mess of a talent show? Unless certain improvements are to be made in terms of presentation, public sentiment against ‘The Clash’ will only grow from hereon.

Born Out of Desperation: GMA’s The Clash Premieres This Weekend

Desperation has become a theme for GMA in recent years.

Weekend primetime, in particular, is more of a mess for the Kapuso network than a blessing. After all, ABS-CBN’s high-rating franchised talent shows like ‘The Voice’, ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar’ and ‘Pinoy Boyband Superstar’ has left GMA in a wretched state, always one step behind from the other.

And even when GMA tried to produce a talent show, they tend to make some unwise decisions and avoid any sort of competition against ABS-CBN’s own. Remember when they aired ‘Bet ng Bayan’ and ‘To the Top’ on the not-so convenient late-night slots?

Fast forward to now and it looks like GMA has learned its lesson and is finally poised to give ABS-CBN a dose of its own medicine. Starting this weekend the network will introduce ‘The Clash’, an all-new singing competition to be hosted by Regine Velasquez-Alcasid.

A total of 62 aspirants selected from several nationwide auditions will compete in intense one-on-one battles to determine the country’s next singing sensation. Judges Lani Misalucha, Ai-ai delas Alas and Christian Bautista will evaluate the performance of each individual and reveal the verdict in front of the audience.

Also part of ‘The Clash’ are Joyce Pring and Andre Paras. The two will provide some news on the preparations of each aspirant and give updates on their performance.

Having learned from the poor reception that ‘Bet ng Bayan’ and ‘To the Top’ earned, GMA made a smart move with ‘The Clash’. The show would air not only on Saturdays but on Sundays as well, and in a more convenient timeslot.

But that does not mean they will have a fighting chance against ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’. With the latter show currently earning ratings in the 30s, ‘The Clash’ should have its hands full dealing with this tough opponent.

Still, Kapuso viewers will be more than happy to see GMA produce a singing competition show once more. This is an opportunity that GMA is itching to do, and out of desperation, they delivered.

Now it is up to ‘The Clash’ to make an impact. But will it be more than enough to make the competition more meaningful?

‘The Clash’ airs every Saturday after ‘Pepito Manaloto’ and Sunday after ‘Daig Kayo ng Lola Ko’ on GMA.

Philippine Cable and Digital Channels Face Issue of Redundancy

Hero is one of several cable channels in the Philippines that was shut down this year due to redundancy in content. (Logo courtesy of Creative Programs Inc.)

Redundancy has become a common theme for cable and digital channels in the Philippines.

In the first half of 2018 alone, viewers witnessed a closure of numerous cable channels in the country. On the local side of the spectrum, there was Hero, TAG, ABS-CBN Regional Channel, CT and 2nd Avenue, and on the international front there was Toonami.

There were also some rebrandings and resurrections of several channels as well. CPI made LIGA the second coming of Balls in time for the FIFA World Cup (replacing ARC, TAG and Hero in the process) while rebranding Lifestyle into Metro Channel, and then the MVP Group converted Bloomberg Philippines into One News.

So why do these things happen to our beloved cable and digital channels? The most cited reason is financial constraints, but it goes deeper than that.

When two channels air similar content with one another, redundancy happens. This is exactly the case that befell the likes of Hero, TAG, CT, 2nd Avenue and Toonami because they feature similar themes and genres with one or several channels.

Hero and Toonami, for example, became victims of cord-cutters and other channels such as Cartoon Network, Boomerang, AniPlus, Animax and even Yey!, which show some anime and action series as well. Same with CT and 2nd Avenue who share some of the programming with sister channels Jack TV and ETC.

Going further back, CPI shut down Velvet in 2014 and moved some of its content over to Lifestyle. Four years later, Lifestyle was rebranded into Metro Channel and is now essentially a second coming of Velvet.

There is also LIGA, which was launched for the FIFA World Cup but is expected to face similar redundancy issues as Balls since its only other source of content are events that air on ABS-CBN S+A. Finally, the rebrand from Bloomberg Philippines to One News has made AksyonTV (a former news channel-turned-T5N clone) redundant, something the MVP Group must address moving forward.

However, redundancy is not limited to cable channels alone. Yey!, for example, has a movie block called ‘Kid Sine’, but some of the films shown here are also aired on sister channel CineMo (under the CineFantasya and CineKomedya blocks).

Yey! also airs reruns of ‘Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids’ while CineMo rebroadcasts ‘Ang Probinsyano’ and ‘Bagani’ on weekends. Such reruns should have been exclusive to Jeepney TV.

These are just some of the examples that face cable and digital channels today. Considering the competitive nature of this business, trying to stay unique and distinct in terms of content is not as easy as it looks.

So the best that these channels can do right now is to remain innovative and wide-eyed to the audience while keeping themselves afloat. This juggling act may be difficult, but when done properly, they can stay on the air for a long period of time.